Testing report
Formula 1 Barcelona May testing
Barcelona F1 test: Button leads first morning for McLaren
Jenson Button made the most of some supersoft tyre runs to lead the way on the opening morning of the first Formula 1 in-season test day at Barcelona in Spain on Tuesday.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: May 17, 2016, 11:13 AM
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The McLaren driver, completing some aerodynamic evaluation for his team, elected to run Pirelli's softest tyres to set his best time of 1m23.753s a few hours in to the session, but Sebastian Vettel was only just behind him.
Vettel kicked off a key test for Ferrari to set the second fastest time, as the team focused on resolving its qualifying issues and getting to the bottom of what went wrong in Spain last weekend.
The German spent most of the morning on short runs and with the soft tyres that had been used at the Spanish GP to try to recreate the conditions that Ferrari had struggled with on Saturday.
During a run shortly before the lunch break, his best lap of 1m23.763 was just one hundredth of a second slower than Button managed.
Nico Rosberg was third fastest, having returned to action for Mercedes for the first time since his opening lap collision with Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The German spent the morning running on medium tyres to set his best lap of 1m25.099s.
Williams caused the biggest stir of the morning when Alex Lynn began aerodynamic evaluation work for the team that involved some radical wing components. The British driver set the fourth quickest time of 1m26.071 in the process, before reverting to the more usual configuration
The double decker wing and sensors on the front of the car gave it a radical look, even though their dimensions are outside of what the regulations allow.
But in producing a downforce increase, it allowed the team to better understand car balance and what can be expected in 2017 when new rules kick in.
Daniel Ricciardo got his first taste of the upgraded Renault engine to set the fifth fastest time, ahead of Manor's Pascal Wehrlein and Renault reserve Esteban Ocon.
Day 1 morning results
Pos. Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 
Jenson Button McLaren 1:23.753 39 2 
Sebastian Vettel 
Ferrari 1:23.763 0.010 49 3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:25.099 1.346 54 4 Alex Lynn Williams 1:26.071 2.318 41 5 
Daniel Ricciardo 
Red Bull 1:26.086 2.333 31 6 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:26.464 2.711 50 7 
Esteban Ocon Renault 1:26.530 2.777 47 8 Romain Grosjean 
Haas 1:26.669 2.916 35 9 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:27.795 4.042 38 10 
Alfonso Celis 
Force India 1:28.570 4.817 34
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